1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for operating a navigation system for a motor vehicle and a navigation system for a motor vehicle.
2. Background of the Art
Operating motor vehicles with combustion engines is associated with emissions, which particularly in the case of higher concentrations (e.g., of harmful substances in respiratory air) may have adverse effects on humans, animals and the environment. For this reason, motor vehicles are equipped with technical devices to reduce emissions (e.g., exhaust gases, particulate matter and noise). Nevertheless, precisely in congested urban areas, the legal limits for air pollution are exceeded regularly, above all with respect to contamination from particulate matter, so that increasingly so-called “low-emission zones” are being designated, where only motor vehicles with particularly low emissions may drive. For this purpose, most motor vehicles are currently classified into four groups (emissions classes), and a traffic sign on the outskirts of this type of “low-emission zone” provides information about which motor vehicles may or may not enter the zone based on its emissions class.
For monitoring and enforcement, motor vehicles are identified with different colored stickers indicating the emissions class assigned to the respective motor vehicle.
The goal of this method is banning those motor vehicles that contribute substantially to air pollution from operating in these types of zones and areas of the road network (street network), which are located in zones (low-emission zones) subject to a high level of pollution from emissions.
What has proven to be disadvantageous in the described method is that road users unfamiliar with the local area are not acquainted with the exact geographic location of the low-emission zones and therefore inadvertently and illegally drive into these types of low-emission zones with their motor vehicles, even though the respective motor vehicle does not possess the emissions class required to do so. A further disadvantage is that some motor vehicles, such as hybrid vehicles, have differentiated emission characteristics depending on the operating mode, which cannot be meaningfully represented by the rigid assignment of a motor vehicle to a single emissions class.
It would be desirable to support drivers of motor vehicles in observing the drive-through restrictions resulting from the low-emission zones and emissions classes of their motor vehicles. At the same time, it would be desirable to integrate motor vehicles with different operating modes into the plan for low-emission zones.